Instant Messaging (IM) systems have proliferated, with several commercial offerings available. These systems can allow individual users to communicate with other users using text, audio, video, and other types of multimedia data. Examples include free offerings such as Skype and Google Talk, as well as commercial, enterprise systems such as the original Microsoft Office Communication Server (hereinafter ‘OCS’) and its associated client Microsoft Office Communicator, and its version called Microsoft Lync.
Certain systems can provide a so-called “presence engine” as well as the ability to communicate via text-based messages. The presence engine is typically responsible for registering the status of a user (e.g., available to communicate, idle, unavailable, etc.) and reporting it to other users (such as co-workers, users declared in the system as ‘friends’ of the specific user, etc.). A user may initiate communication by typing a text message in a window, addressed to another user. The intended recipient of the message may be notified by the software and may be offered the opportunity to reply.
Many IM systems offer the ability to conduct text-based conversations among groups of users, i.e., with groups of more than two users at a time. Several IM systems offer the ability to combine the text-based communication with audio communication whereas others offer the ability to use video as well.
Due to the complexity in offering multi-point video communication, certain systems allow multi-user audio communication (e.g., Skype or Google Talk) but only person-to-person video communication. The technical problems in multi-point video may be significant, especially when desktop operation is desired (generally a requirement for an IM system).
One solution for videoconferencing uses Scalable Video Coding and the so-called Scalable Video Communication Server (SVCS) architecture described in part in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 7,593,032, incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. This solution can allow telepresence-quality multi-point video communication even from regular PC and Mac desktops. It thus can be suitable far use in a desktop-based IM system.
It can be desirable to provide a system and method through which a multi-point video and audio communication system can be seamlessly integrated with the operation of an IM system. Commonly assigned International Patent Application No. PCT/US10/58801, “System and method for combining instant messaging and video communication systems,” incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, describes mechanisms for integrating IM systems and video communication systems by using URLs placed by users in the IM system's chat window. Users who are not registered on, or logged in to, the videoconferencing system can click on the URL to join a session. The system described therein can use a plug-in to be installed alongside the IM client software to enable communication between the two system components.
It can also be desirable to be able to integrate the videoconferencing system with the IM system without relying on a plug-in, and to integrate the multi-point videoconferencing system with any video and audio communication capabilities offered by the IM system itself. This can provide an improved user experience when the videoconferencing system software is available, but also can allow users without it to connect using the native video and audio communication capabilities of the IM system.